


First Days and First Assumptions

by aalwaysbethere



Series: Assumptions 'Verse [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Elementary School, Assumptions, Dad Dean, First Meetings, M/M, Misunderstandings, Openly Bisexual Dean Winchester, Queer Castiel, Single Parent Dean, Teacher Castiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-07
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-11-29 00:47:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11429676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aalwaysbethere/pseuds/aalwaysbethere
Summary: The first day of school after summer break is always a bit of a mess, that much first grade teacher Castiel Novak can confirm. But defying the odds, everything went well. That is, if you don't count his first encounter with Dean Winchester.Truly, first days can be a real pain, but first assumptions might even be worse... most of the time.





	First Days and First Assumptions

Castiel Novak loved his job. Ever since he was little, he knew he wanted to become a teacher one day.

Growing up with six older and one younger sibling, his parents’ expectations were always very high, especially after his two oldest siblings first got accepted into Ivy League colleges for Law and Medicine. Naturally, announcing that he was going to study to become an elementary school teacher wasn’t something his parents took lightly.

_‘But Castiel, the pay is horrendous.’_

_‘Little children are like demons, how could you stand working with them?’_

_‘It must be such exhausting work.’_

He’d heard it all. Still, he’d made up his mind years ago, and not even his parents’ disappointment could throw him off track.

Now, at thirty-five years old, Castiel still didn’t regret his decision, not a single day. Maybe sometimes the children got a bit much and he had to take a moment to compose himself again, but that rarely happened. He all but thrived in his work, and parents, teachers and students adored him.

Teaching in a school in Lawrence, Kansas definitely hadn’t been part of his plan, though. After living and studying in the very blue state of Illinois for all his life, the move to the even more severely red Kansas hadn’t come easy. Castiel had never identified as specifically gay, not liking to put a label on it. He’d been with both men and women, and while he didn’t feel any kind of repulsion towards one of the sexes, his experiences clearly enlightened him about his preferences for males. In other words, he’d rank himself a solid 4.5 on the Kinsey scale.

As expected, life in the Midwest wasn’t easy for him. He had to keep his sexuality a secret at work, and even outside of that he wouldn’t dare parade around with a rainbow flag, afraid of people’s less than unfriendly reactions.

He’d thought about leaving it all behind and just moving back to Illinois, or maybe a whole new state. Really, there wasn’t much holding him in Kansas. Until there was.

 

* * *

 

The first day of the new school year was always very hectic and a bit of a hash. After spending the first lesson trying to learn every single one of his brand new first graders’ names, he was currently busy supervising his students on the playground during their break.

Castiel saw his colleague, Joanna Harvelle, come over to him and went to greet her.

“Exhausting, right?” she asked. “Seriously, I hate first days after summer break. My third graders can’t even concentrate for five damn seconds. It seems like they forgot just about everything over these weeks.”

Castiel nodded and watched two of his students chase each other in a game of tag. “Most of mine are just very excited to start learning. I think they are all very bright for their age.”

“Excited to learn the real shit, huh?” Jo said and chuckled shortly. “I actually think my niece is in your class. She’s a super smart little girl.”

“Really?” Castiel asked and involuntarily raised his eyebrows. “Which one is it?”

“She’s standing just over there by the—“

“Mr Novak!”

Castiel turned to see one of his students, Krissy Chambers, run towards him, holding her thumb. He bent down to come face to face with her. “What’s going on, Krissy? Will you let me see that?”

The little girl sniffled quietly but showed him her hand regardless. A small thorn had squeezed itself into her little thumb, barely visible. “It hurts, Mr Novak.”

He took her by her uninjured hand. “Alright Krissy, we’ll go on a trip to the school nurse. Ms Moseley is going to take care of this. Everything will be perfectly fine.”

She nodded through her tears and they walked to Missouri’s office, after he’d told Jo to take over supervision of his first graders for a little while. The process of getting the thorn out took less than ten seconds. Missouri got her tweezer out and Krissy cried some more, so Castiel had to reassure her that it wasn’t going to hurt and would be over within seconds. She stopped crying long enough to look at him and Missouri seized the moment to pull the thorn from Krissy’s finger.

When they were about to return to the playground, the bell sounded and not soon after, all of his students were back in the classroom.

The rest of the school day passed in a blur and suddenly he was standing outside, waiting with his students for their parents. He watched Krissy jump into a middle-aged man’s arms, presumably her father. Kevin left hand in hand with his mother, waving at Castiel excitedly. Ben’s mother came over to shake his hand and quickly introduce herself before she left with her son.

It was when he looked over to his right that he saw a man with dark blond hair, maybe in his early to mid-thirties, crouched down in front of Mary, smiling at the girl. She was one of the first children whose name Castiel had learned. The child with her wild, dark curls and smooth caramel skin was sat in the front of his classroom and seemingly couldn’t shut up. When she wasn’t contributing to the lesson, she was talking to her neighbors. When she was participating though, her answers were mostly very well thought of.

Castiel frowned. The school had dealt with potential child molesters before, mostly older men who hovered around the school grounds and tried to talk to the children.

With long strides Castiel walked over to the two and laid a protective hand over Mary’s shoulder. “What seems to be the problem here?” he asked and looked directly at the man, who looked back up at him with magnificent green eyes.

His eyebrows drew together and the man rose up to full height, towering over Castiel by an inch or two. “Excuse me?” he asked, sounding slightly offended.

Castiel stared back, unwaveringly. “Sir, I believe it’s time for you to leave.”

The man seemed even more confused, before his features lightened and his mouth formed an ‘o’ in realization. “You gotta be fucking kidding me,” he muttered.

“Sir,” Castiel reprimanded him, “we don’t have any tolerance for—“

“No, dude!” the man interrupted. “Can’t believe this shit is happening again.” Obviously not caring about what Castiel had previously said he bent down and picked Mary up, hefting her onto his hip. “Look man, I think there is a misunderstanding here.”

“Sir, would you please let go of the child,” Castiel asked, getting more than a little alarmed.

The man just laughed. “Look, the exact same thing happened the first day of kindergarten. I...” He held his hand out. “My name’s Dean Winchester.”

Castiel’s brain worked in silence for a while, before it provided him with Mary’s name. _Mary Winchester_. He shook his head before he started tumbling over his words. ”Oh Goodness,” he said and gripped the man’s hand. “I am so sorry, I had no idea, I just assumed. This is so embarrassing, I never should have assumed anything at all.” He had honestly no idea what to say, so he simply stuck to introducing himself. “My name is Castiel Novak, your daughter’s teacher.”

The man smiled, little laugh lines suddenly more visible on his face. Castiel couldn’t help but notice how they only accentuated his attractive features. _Stay professional_.

“It’s fine,” Dean reassured him. “It actually happens all the time. People just assume I’m not her father because our skin colors don’t match.” A look of hurt passed over his face, but it was quickly gone.

“Daddy,” Mary chirped in. “I wanna go home. I’m hungry.”

Both men shifted their attention to the six year-old in Dean’s arms. He beamed at his daughter. “Alright, baby, we’re gonna get home soon.”

“Yo Dean,” another voice came from their right. Jo walked over to them and hugged the man. “And how’s my favorite niece?” she asked Mary, who laughed delightedly. “Hey Cas,” Jo then said in Castiel’s direction. “I told you about Mary, right? Guess you met Dean, then.”

Looking between the two, Castiel asked, “Siblings?”

The two in question shared a look and shrugged. “Pretty much.”

“Hey Jo,” Dean started and fished car keys out of his pocket. “Can you bring her to the car for me, I need to speak to... Mr Novak for a second.”

Jo looked between them for a few moments, a small knowing smirk forming on her lips, before she nodded and took Mary. “Come on.”

Once they were alone, Dean awkwardly shoved his hands into his jean pockets. “Okay look, I don’t judge you. Most people don’t think I’m her dad. You really don’t need to worry or blame yourself. Happens all the time.”

Castiel nodded thankfully. “I can only repeat that I’m terribly sorry.”

Dean’s laugh was infectious. “It’s fine, man. Really.” He nervously scratched the back of his neck. “Okay, uh, I used to be with this girl, Cassie, and when things got really serious she bolted. Nine months later I found her on my doorstep with a letter from her mother. She couldn’t keep her. I guess what I’m trying to say here is... Mary is my everything. Like literally. And ever since Cassie I never really... tried anymore. And if I’m reading you wrong here, I’m more than sorry, but... would you maybe like to go out for dinner, sometime in the future?”

Castiel was pretty sure his mouth hung open now. “I, uh,” he said unintelligibly.

“It’s fine if you say no,” Dean quickly added. “I mean I guess now it was just me making assumptions and—“

“Yes,” Castiel quickly said. “I’d love to.”

Castiel found that Dean beaming at him might be the best feeling in the world. “Good,” the man said.

So maybe Kansas wasn’t completely bad.

**Author's Note:**

> Visit me on tumblr: [aalwaysdestiel.tumblr.com](url) ... and I love comments.
> 
> So I finally posted SOMETHING. Normally one-shots aren't my cup of tea but hey, I've had this idea inside my head for ages. Like seriously why does no one ever let Dean and Cassie have a kid I mean how cute would that be?  
> Anyways, I really really really hope you liked it and maybe stick around for the next time I might post something (because promise, there are tons of multi-chaptered stories I started on my laptop).
> 
> Pls remember that English isn't my first language - Kat ♥


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